Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1887-04-15
less and go a little hungry and be al
angel forever. a%

!
angel forever. %
hope, however, that a good many
people who have been supporting the
Catholic church by giving tithes of the
wages of WEAKNESS will see, and clearly
see, that Catholicism is not their
friend; that the church cannot and
will not support them: that, on the
contrary, they must support the
church. hope they will see that all
the prayers have to be paid for, al
though no one has ever been answered.
hope they will perceive that the
church is on the side of wealth and
power; that the mitre is the friend of
the crown, that the altar is the sworn
brother OF the throne. l hope they
will finally know that the church
cares infinitely more for the money of
the millionaire than for the souls of
the poor.
Of course there are thousands of in
dividual exceptions. l am speaking
OF the church as an institution, as a
corpOration-and when l say the
church l include all churches. It is
said of corporations in general that
they have no soul, and it may truth
fully be said OF the church that it has
less than any other. 1t lives on aims.
1t gives nothing for what it gets. It
has no sympathy. Beggars never
weep over the misfortunes of other
beggars.
Nothing could give me more pleas
ure than to see the Catholic church
on the side of human freedom-noth-
ing more pleasure than to see the
Catholics of the world-those who
work and weep and toil-sensible
enough to know that all the money
paid for superstition is worse than
lost. l wish they could see that the
counting of beads and the saying of
prayers and celebrating of masses
and that all the kneelings and censer-
swingings and fastings and bell ring
ings amount to less than nothing
that all these things tend only to the
degradation of mankind. It is hard.
l know, to find an antidote for a poison
that was mingled with q mothers
milk.
The laboring masses, so far as the
Catholics are concerned, are Rlled
with awe and wonder and fear about
the church. This fear began to grow
while they were being rocked in their
cradles, and they still imagine that
the church has some mysterious pow
er, that it is in direct communication
with some infinite personality that
could, if it desired, strike them dead,
or damn their souls forever. Persons
who have no such belief, who care
nothing for popes, or priests, or
churches, or heavens, or hells, or
devils, or gods, have very little idea of
the power OF fear.
The old dogmas filled the brain with
strange monsters. The soul of the or
thodox Christian gropes and wanders
and crawls in kind Of dungeon,
where the strained eyes see fearful
shapes and the frightened flesh shrinks
from the touch of serpents.
The good part of Christianity-that
} is to say, kindness, morality, will never
60 down. The cruel part ought to 60
down. And by the cruel part / mean
the doctrine of eternal punishment
of allowing the good to suffer for the
bad-allowing innocence to pay the
debt of guilt. So the foolish part of
Christianity-that is to say. the mi
raculous will go down. The absurd
part must perish. But there will be
no war about it as there was in France.
Nobody believes enough in the foolish
part of Christianity now to fight for it.
Nobody believes with intensity
enough in miracles to shoulder a mus
ket. There is probably not a Christian
, in New York willing to fight for any
} story, no matter if the story is so old
that it is covered with moss. No men,
, tally brave and intelligent man be-
! lieves iii miracles, and no intelligent
man cares whether there was mira
Gle or not, for the reason that every in
: telligent man knows that the milacu-
lous has no possible connection with
! the moral. "Thou shalt not steal" is
just as good commandment if it
/ should turn out that the food was Q
drought. "Thou shalt not murder" is
a good and just and righteous law,
! and whether any particular miracle
, was ever performed or not, has moth
, ing to do with the case. There is no
{ possible relation between these things.
ii I am ON the side not only of the
!, physically oppressed, but Of the men,
3 tally oppressed. hate those who put
lashes on the body, and despise those
+ who put the soul in chains. In other
y words, am in favor of liberty. do
8 not wish that any man should be the
8 slave OF his fellow men, or that the hu-
man race should be the slaves of any
\ god, real or imaginary. Man has the
+ right to think for himself, to work for
! himself, to take care of himself, to get
8 bread for himself, to. get home fol
D himself. He has right to his own
: opinion about God and heaven and
hell; the right to learn any art OF
mystery or trade; the right to work
for whom he will for what he will and